Tag: Health & Fitness

It’s that time of year all #TIUgirls get excited for – the Tone It Up Bikini Series! I’m going to be joining in this year and thought I’d share my goals with you. If you don’t know what Tone It Up is, I’d highly recommend checking out their website, as they have a ton of information over there. But to briefly sum up, Tone It Up is run by 2 gorgeous best friends, Karena and Katrina, and is about all things health and fitness related. They have a Nutrition Plan you can purchase, which gives you a lifetime membership to all past and any future updates or special editions they come out with. They also sell their own products, from workout DVD’s and plant-based protein powder, to workout clothes and more.

The Tone It Up Bikini Series is their biggest challenge of the year and the team gets so amped up over it that we sometimes end up breaking the internet.. The Bikini Series is free to join in with as K&K post a Weekly Schedule on their site detailing your workouts each day (which you can find on their YouTube channel), along with recipes and lifestyle challenges too. They encourage you to check in on social media, which is not only really motivating, but helps you to stay on track and gets you inspired when you see everyone else getting in their morning Bootycall. When you sign up for the Bikini Series you’ll be getting 8 weeks of daily workouts and challenges, daily tips and motivation, new weekly fitness videos, weekly check in prizes and at the end you could be in with the chance to win a holiday to Turks and Caicos for you and a friend! Sounds pretty great huh?!

The challenge kicks off on 25th April, and Karena and Katrina usually ask you to set yourself some goals for the 8-week challenge, so here are mine:

My Tone It Up Bikini Series Goals

#25bySummer – by the end of the 8 week challenge I want to have done 25 miles, whether that through running, walking, HIIT, dancing.

1 x daily moves every day – TIU set 5 moves to be done for a minute each and repeated for a total of 10 minutes worked out. My goal is to at least do these moves once through every day.

Create a morning routine – I’m often rushing around in the mornings, so I’d like to create a routine where I get up earlier, have time to get my workout in, check over my to do list for the day and maybe even have time to meditate before starting to get ready for my day.

Find 2 veggie sources of protein I like – I’ve recently stopped eating meat so would like to find more sources of protein that I enjoy and stay on track with a balanced diet.

Check in at least once a week – check in’s are great for keeping yourself accountable and seeing what the rest of the team is up to, but sometimes it gets overwhelming feeling like you have to check in with everything you’re doing and eating. So instead I don’t want to focus too much on the checkin in side (actually doing the workouts and eating healthy is more important), but I do want to check in at least once a week.

Create a workout haven in my home – I don’t really have a dedicated area to work out in, so I’d like to set up a small space somewhere with all of my gear. It should make working out in the mornings that much easier with everything in one place, and will hopefully be a nice environment to step into.

Get in a bikini and go to the beach – So often summer rolls around and I don’t even wear a bikini, let alone get my butt to the beach! This year I want to make the effort to go, feeling confident in my body and making the most of what little summer sunshine we get here in the UK.

I know to some of you those goals might not seem like a lot, especially when you consider most other #TIUgirls strive towards #100bySummer but, like I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been suffering with a few health issues this year and want to ease myself back into exercising. I’ll be following along with the schedule as best I can (and I can’t wait to try out the new routines on the brand new Beach Babe 4 DVD), but I’m going to adjust things as I feel necessary and do things my way. For example, if K&K say you should do a particular routine 3 times, I might only do it once or twice. It’s important to remember that this is a lifestyle change, not a race to the finish. I know what I’m capable of, mentally and physically, and I don’t want to set myself unrealistic goals, only to not reach them and get down on myself. That kinda defeats the point in my eyes as I’ll be reluctant to continue working out at all. Something is better than nothing, and hopefully I can build things up as I go and gradually increase the number of workouts, the intensity, the weights and all that good stuff.

So they are my Tone It Up Bikini Series Goals for this year. Let me know if you’re going to be joining in with this challenge and what your goals are. I’ll be checking in on Instagram a few times over the next 8 weeks, so if you’re interested make sure you’re following me over there and say hi as I’d love to meet other #TIUgirls!

I’ve just got done with my Week 6 Day 2 Couch to 5k workout and I’m on such a high. The workout sped by so quickly and I’m attributing it to the music I was listening to, so I thought I would share my gym playlist with you. Some of these songs might not be obvious running songs but they all motivate and inspired me to run and keep pushing on when the going gets tough…

1. Olly Murs – Oh My Goodness (I like to think this song describes my new found love affair with running)2. Duck Sauce – Barbra Streisand (This song and the next one remind me of the Tone It Up girls, and they definitely inspire and motivate me)